Slightly hungover, we stumble out of bed about 8:30 to get ready for our long day of driving from town to town to get the boys revised birth certificates. But first, its time to reunite Vanya with his two brothers. Today he will come with us to the baby orphanage for our morning visit. After a quick breakfast (and a few aspirin), we pile into the taxi to see Max and DJ.
 |
What a great reunion!! DJ immediately remembers his brother Vanya, and before long Max joins in as they hug each other and talk on and on about who-knows-what. Vanya gives them the toys he brought last time and they begin to crawl on the floor, acting like dogs and just having a good time playing with their long lost brother. The morning turns pretty chaotic as they kick balls and throw toys all over the room - you know...playing like boys do! Its great to see how Vanya plays with them and you can sense a change in group dynamics as Max assumes the role of "baby" and DJ just seems a bit more grown up with his big brother in the room.
 |
At 11:45 we head out to grab one more lunch at Camellia's before we start the four hours of driving to get the birth certificates. One of the towns we need to go to is the little town where Vanya's school is, so I agree to take him back to see his friends one last time while we wait for the certificates. He is mostly interested in saying goodbye to Natasha. He finds her and starts the process of saying good-bye and tries to convince her to run to the market real quick. But she has to be somewhere, plus we are running out of time with one more town to visit before it closes at 4pm. Poor Vanya - I don't think he realizes that he may never see her again. As she is a bit older, I think she knows...
 |
They spend every last minute saying goodbye while Emma and our driver start to get frantic about the time. We need to get going, but Vanya just doesn't want to leave. For the rest of the afternoon, they spend every chance they can talking to each other on my cell phone. Very sweet...
We barely make it to the second town before they close to pick up Max's birth certificate and so we head back to Kirovograd. By 5pm we arrive home, tired and road weary from four hours of bouncing around on those terrible roads. Mission accomplished as we get one step closer to getting out of here and returning home to the States. Emma makes dinner - plimini for Vanya and leftover kebabs for us while Vanya makes the fire and we spend a quiet (and probably boring) evening hanging out reading and watching TV.
Good Night Vanya, DJ and Max Dannemiller!!
No comments:
Post a Comment